320 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 



three days. At the end of this period they had prepared a 

 sufficiency of wax with which they built pillars that kept it 

 in a firm position : but by some accident afterwards these got 

 displaced, when they had again recourse to their former ma- 

 noeuvre for supplying their place ; and this operation they per- 

 severingly continued until M. Huber, pitying their hard case, 

 relieved them by fixing the object of their attention firmly 

 on the table. ^ 



It is impossible not to be struck with the reflection that 

 this most singular fact is inexplicable on the supposition that 

 insects are impelled to their operations by a blind instinct 

 alone. How could mere machines have thus provided for a 

 case which in a state of nature has probably never occurred 

 to ten nests of humble-bees since the creation ? If in this 

 instance these little animals were not guided by a process 

 of reasoning, what is the distinction between reason and in- 

 stinct ? How could the most profound architect have better 

 adapted the means to the end — how more dexterously shored 

 up a tottering edifice, until his beams and his props were in 

 readiness ? 



With respect to the operations of the termites or white ants 

 in rearing their young I have not much to observe. AH that 

 is known is, that they build commodious cells for their re- 

 ception, into which the eggs of the queen are conveyed by 

 the workers as soon as laid, and where when hatched they are 

 assiduously fed by them until they are able to provide for 

 themselves. 



In concluding this subject, it may not be superfluous to 

 advert to an objection which is sometimes thrown out against 

 regarding with any particular sympathy the aflection of the 

 lower animals to their young, on the ground that this feeling 

 is in them the result of corporeal sensation only, and wholly 

 different from that love which human parents feel for their 

 off'spring. It is true that the latter involves moral consider- 

 ations which cannot have place in the brute creation ; but it 

 would puzzle such objectors to explain in what respect the 

 aflection which a mother feels for her new-born infant the 



1 Linn. Trans, vi. 247, &c. 



